Based take. A lot of people are politically ignorant for the most part. I include myself in that, because I don't know as much about politics as I should. That's why I normally try to stay out of them unless it's my area of interest, like war or my displeasure about having to do taxes for a small business every year
Personally I like the idea of the tariffs because it was like yeah let's make these mother fuckers pay the fair share that we have to pay everyone, but something felt very off with it.
Not only that but the flurry of executive orders didn't feel right. It's weird to me that nobody noticed anything was off with that.
I can understand where Trump is coming from with the tariffs because I do think he is right about bringing back manufacturing jobs in America. But there are two main issues with the tariffs.
1. Trump doesn't have a fucking plan on how to bring back manufacturing to America with the tariffs.
Typically tariffs are in place to discourage a nation's consumers from buying foreign made goods and services and encourages them to buy domestically made goods and services. However, the main reason why manufacturing jobs left America in the first place is because the cost of manufacturing is simply too expensive in America.
The main reason why manufactures love countries like China so much is because the cost of manufacturing is dirt cheap in countries like China. Meanwhile back in America, the cost of manufacturing in America is way too expensive and there's too much government bureaucracy for manufactures to bring jobs back to America.
It would've made much more sense for Trump for also wanting to deregulate the U.S. economy and get rid of a lot of government bureaucracy to make America more attractive for manufactures so they can ditch countries like China. Trump isn't planning to get the federal government out of the American economy anytime soon so the tariffs are pointless if the cost of manufacturing is still going to be expensive in America.
Also, countries don't pay for tariffs and it's a bold faced lie for Trump to claim that countries pay for tariffs. Since the times of ancient Greece, there has never been an example of a country paying for the tariff being imposed by another country and the burden always goes to the consumer.
2. The Executive Branch of the American government (aka the White House) never had the power of the purse to begin with.
This is basic middle school and high school civics education back when they showed you Schoolhouse Rock on the classroom's TV set. Only Congress has the power to make monetary policy in America, not the White House. Trump is a retard where he thinks his executive orders on monetary policy are somehow constitutional (they're not). Trump never had the power to impose monetary policy in America as he sees fit because the U.S. Constitution prohibits this. If Trump wants his tariffs, he has to ask Congress to give him his tariffs.
The way Trump was going with his tariff policy, the only thing this will accomplish is raising prices on goods and services and half of the Kiwis are complete retards to think the way Trump is doing things with the American economy was even going to work in the first place.